In recent years, the coffee beverage market has enjoyed increased favor worldwide. Numerous espresso bars and coffee shops have capitalized on the popularity of coffee-based beverages (e.g., espresso, cappuccino, latte), and are now beginning to explore other types of beverages. The market for hot and iced tea beverages is enjoying new found popularity in many areas of the world, and in particular, in the United States. Prior to the present invention, however, offering a wide variety of freshly brewed teas to the public, particularly iced teas, teas containing mixtures of ingredients, and teas requiring extra preparation steps (e.g., Chai teas), has been problematic, because of the time required to brew each type of tea, combined with the inability to keep a large selection of such tea preparations on hand at one time. In addition, micro-contamination of storage tanks and tea dispensers which are commonly used to store bulk amounts of a single type of tea for iced tea service is problematic in many restaurants.
The desire to be able to quickly produce a wide variety of coffee beverages having a consistent, reproducible, high quality has led to the development of a variety of coffee/espresso machines and accessories, as well as expertise in the coffee beverage industry. With the expansion of the tea market, there is clearly a similar need to provide expertise and product technology that will extend the retail tea brewing industry beyond the traditional "tea bag".
With the number of cafes, restaurants, and retail outlets preparing and serving beverages which are prepared in espresso machines, there was a need for standardizing the preparation of espresso beverages to compensate for the wide variations in experience among espresso machine operators and in the espresso machines themselves. In response to this need, a variety of espresso machines and coffee brewing containers, or "pods", have been disclosed which are meant to provide a foolproof, consistent means for making an espresso drink. For example, Illy et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,694, 1981; Fond et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,335, 1997; and Cisaria et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,741, 1997; disclose various espresso machines, coffee "pods", and "pod adapters" for espresso machines. Typically, a coffee pod as described in the above-referenced patents consists of an enclosed water-permeable pod or package which contains a pre-measured amount of ground coffee that is preferably compressed to provide a consistent measure of coffee for production of espresso beverages. These coffee pods and the espresso machine adaptors that are designed to accommodate them are intended to provide a standardized espresso or coffee that can be used to make a variety of coffee drinks.
In the retail market, it would be desirable to be able to use existing coffee/espresso technology to produce high quality tea-based beverages, since it would be expensive and impractical to design an entire new line of machines and products suitable for brewing high quality teas. None of the above-mentioned references, however, discloses how to produce a consistently high quality tea using the technology designed for coffee and espresso beverages. Indeed, the previously described "pod" products and coffee grinds can not be simply extrapolated to the production of tea in an espresso machine. For example, a tea "pod" that is made using the guidelines disclosed for coffee, or merely filled with any tea blend, when extracted in an espresso machine, produces a tea that is weak and tasteless. Moreover, the flavor of any additional spices in a tea blend produced in an espresso machine may be lost.
Since the market for a variety of tea-based beverages that can be prepared in seconds continues to increase, there is a need to provide a product and method of producing a tea extract system for use in the production of a variety of tea beverages which takes advantage of espresso brewing technology. Such products and methods should be consistent, fast, easy, cost efficient, and produce a high quality tea extract for use in a variety of beverages.